International Studies

International Studies

Meet the International Studies Faculty (Short Video)

International Studies students are curious global citizens who want to make their mark on the world. The major program provides them with the tools and guidance to focus their interests and accomplish their goals. We prepare CSULB graduates for good jobs in fields like non-profit work, international development, international affairs, international trade and business, education, and law.

International Studies helps students develop strong analytical abilities while teaching them how to integrate a wide variety of disciplinary methods, language competencies, and cross-cultural understandings into the study of global issues. Advisors work closely with students to help guide them in a way that is sensitive to their personal constraints (economic, family, visa, AB540), while also pushing students to their maximum potential. As a result, IST graduates have success in graduate school admissions and enter the workforce with skill sets that employers value.

The faculty of CSULB’s International Studies Program joins with President Jane Close Conoley in embracing the diversity of our community and condemning the rise of hate crimes and oppression. We express deep distress at the rise of identity-based and anti-immigrant violence in North America and around the world, and we offer our support and fellowship to all communities filled with fear.

We believe that all forms of identity-based hatred are unequivocally interrelated: Hate against one marginalized group bleeds into and fuels hate against other marginalized groups. The violence that such hate instigates must be acknowledged. It must be countered.

The spread and inflammation of this increasingly violent hatred is right now emanating from rhetoric at the very highest levels of power and authority in our nation. We must recognize and call out this danger for what it is. We cannot stand by silently. Our faculty decry the circulation of ideas that pit “us” against “them” or ideas that would deny belonging, respect, and participation to anyone based on personal identity.

It is only by joining forces against all forms of identity-based violence that we can hope to address any one of them. Our program expresses its solidarity with all marginalized communities under attack, and we commit ourselves to ending this spate of hate crimes.